A pragmatic study of complaint strategies as used by Egyptian Arabic speakers | ||
| المجلة العلمیة لکلیة الآداب-جامعة دمياط | ||
| Article 5, Volume 10, Issue 3, July 2021, Pages 123-138 PDF (300.62 K) | ||
| Document Type: المقالات البحثية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/artdau.2021.81403.1032 | ||
| Author | ||
| سارة ماهر مصطفى عبده* | ||
| کلية الآداب- جامعة دمياط- قسم اللغة الانجليزية | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This is a pragmatic study to investigate the communicative behavior of Egyptian Arabic Speakers (EASs) in the act of complaining. The participants of the study consist of 50 Egyptian Arabic Speakers (EASs). They are requested to complete a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) involving six complaint-inducing scenarios. Trosborg's taxonomy of complaint strategies (1995) is used for classifying data, with three additional strategies presented in Yian's (2008) research. That is, the study yields eleven strategies for expressing complaints. The participants’ performance is analyzed with respect to the social variables included in the complaint situation, namely, social distance and social power. Moreover, the severity of the wrong is, also, examined with the aim of identifying to which degree it influences the participants’ selection of strategy. The findings of the study revealed that Egyptians use a variety of strategies when expressing complaints. Furthermore, participants’ performance varies regarding the social distance and social power included in a specific context. In addition, the severity of the wrong plays a great role in affecting participants’ way of complaining. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Speech Acts; Complaint Strategies; Social Power; Social Distance | ||
| References | ||
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